Your Character's Name: Cupid
When Calvin and I woke up, Bartre was gone. We looked for him or signs of a struggle or blood for a few hours but we didn’t find anything. He must have just walked off during his watch, or was snatched so quietly that Calvin and I didn’t wake up. All Calvin and I could do was hope it was the former, so we continued on slowly with the hope that Bartre would catch up to us.
And then there were two.
We happened upon a lone robed man adorned with gold and flames. He asked us if we had any electronics. I don’t but asked hum why he wanted to know anyways. I didn’t really listen to his answer. Something about rebuilding society. Looking around, I don’t see that being possible. I ask him if he ever wonders if the world is how it is because the human species has overstayed its welcome. He laughs and keeps talking with Calvin.
We trade the location of some generators we found in an old barn for information about Calvin’s wife. Seems the horseman may have taken her to their base.
Calvin tells me he doesn’t expect me to go with him. Really though, I would expect part of him to expect it at least a little. Besides, where else am I supposed to go? Home? How could I make it all the way back with a flashlight and a gun with five bullets that I have never even fired?
We don’t know exactly where the horseman’s base is, but we have a vague idea of it’s location. I can’t imagine it being too hard to spot. The horseman don’t seem like the kind of people to concern themselves with discreetness. My understanding of it is that they just want to watch the world burn. Something that until very recently I could not have begun to comprehend. Maybe everything can be explained in the right setting.
Calvin and I find an old man tinkering with old plane engine parts in an abandoned building surrounded by broken planes. A plane graveyard where this man was trying to doctor Frankenstein a plane back to life. I hope he succeeds. I left him my alcohol lamp. I told him where Calvin and I were heading and why. He told me I was going to get killed, but wished us luck anyways. I know I should be nervous. I should be scared. I don’t feel anything. I’m just numb.
We hear the commotion in the distance and somehow I just know it’s more horsemen fighting with non horsemen. I feel like I’m starting to be able to sense when they’re around. I go towards them and Calvin and I shoot and kill one. The rest of the horsemen disperse and I treat the wounded people left behind. I had never shot a gun before. This is a hell of a way to start.
Calvin and I dress in the dead horsemens’ clothes. I’m already bloody from treating the wounded people. The horsemens’ clothes are heavy and hot. I wipe my forehead with my forearm. I feel a cold sticky streak across my face, and a second later I realize it isn’t from wiping away my sweat, it’s the blood from my clothes. At least I’ll look convincing when we try to sneak into the horsemen’s base and save Calvin’s wife. If there is anything left to save. If my crazy plan of sneaking in with these disguises even works. If we’re not just shot on sight. The people that I bandaged and helped are watching me dress. They look at me like I’m crazy. They look scared and confused. They looked disgusted. Even after I saved their lives, they look down on me now. I don’t say anything, Calvin and I continue on.
We don’t talk as we’re walking. I guess Calvin must have a lot on his mind. He doesn’t look like himself. There seems to be something fundamentally wrong with him now. He is a cube who’s dimensions are slightly skewed. It’s not from the horsemen’s clothing either. Its from something underneath. If anything the odd apparel makes his internal deformity less obtrusive. Excuses are helpful escapes.
I can’t get the robed man out of my head. The way that he laughed when I suggested that our species may have run its course disgusts me more and more with each passing second. I hate anything that believes itself to be the only important thing in the entire universe. I hate that people automatically assume that they are the most important. I hate that people automatically assume that we are the only specie that matters. Species have come and gone countless times since the beginning of this world. Why should our species be any different?
The sun starts to set and I feel the air cooling around me. Any colder and I would be able to see my breath. It is dead calm around us. I can only hear the world crunching beneath our feet as we trek on. This world is diseased. This world is dieing around me and I don’t know if there is anything I can do. We had societies once, and the inalienable evil in our hearts destroyed us. Now we have no societies, and still we destroy ourselves and each other and everything around us. There are weeds poking up through the pavement we’re traversing, crumbling it back into nothingness. In time, this will be a forest again. In time it will be as if humans had never touched it in the first place. In time there will be no one and nothing to remember that we were ever alive at all.
Calvin and I find our way to the lair of the horsemen at last. There are two men standing outside, leaning on two of four large pillars marking the entrance to this hellish place. In the twilight, the building looms over us sculpted from black sludge, its tower tearing a hole in heaven itself. I can almost hear the angels crying. Bodies, human and animal alike, mark the outlines of the threshold, displayed mangled and piked for all the world to see. Calvin and I approach.
The guards are suspicious of us, but don’t kill us on sight. Calvin uses his quick tongue to see to that, but I can see they still need convincing. With quickness and accuracy that I did not know I possessed, I drew my gun and shot a guard twice in the head. The other guard laughed, as Calvin did his best to hold his composure, but I could see behind his mask. In this instant I realized, the village elders were right. There are monsters out here. Monsters in the guise of men. I have become what I had been brought up to fear. I am proof of their legends now.
“I empathize now Robert. I really do.”
When Calvin and I woke up, Bartre was gone. We looked for him or signs of a struggle or blood for a few hours but we didn’t find anything. He must have just walked off during his watch, or was snatched so quietly that Calvin and I didn’t wake up. All Calvin and I could do was hope it was the former, so we continued on slowly with the hope that Bartre would catch up to us.
And then there were two.
We happened upon a lone robed man adorned with gold and flames. He asked us if we had any electronics. I don’t but asked hum why he wanted to know anyways. I didn’t really listen to his answer. Something about rebuilding society. Looking around, I don’t see that being possible. I ask him if he ever wonders if the world is how it is because the human species has overstayed its welcome. He laughs and keeps talking with Calvin.
We trade the location of some generators we found in an old barn for information about Calvin’s wife. Seems the horseman may have taken her to their base.
Calvin tells me he doesn’t expect me to go with him. Really though, I would expect part of him to expect it at least a little. Besides, where else am I supposed to go? Home? How could I make it all the way back with a flashlight and a gun with five bullets that I have never even fired?
We don’t know exactly where the horseman’s base is, but we have a vague idea of it’s location. I can’t imagine it being too hard to spot. The horseman don’t seem like the kind of people to concern themselves with discreetness. My understanding of it is that they just want to watch the world burn. Something that until very recently I could not have begun to comprehend. Maybe everything can be explained in the right setting.
Calvin and I find an old man tinkering with old plane engine parts in an abandoned building surrounded by broken planes. A plane graveyard where this man was trying to doctor Frankenstein a plane back to life. I hope he succeeds. I left him my alcohol lamp. I told him where Calvin and I were heading and why. He told me I was going to get killed, but wished us luck anyways. I know I should be nervous. I should be scared. I don’t feel anything. I’m just numb.
We hear the commotion in the distance and somehow I just know it’s more horsemen fighting with non horsemen. I feel like I’m starting to be able to sense when they’re around. I go towards them and Calvin and I shoot and kill one. The rest of the horsemen disperse and I treat the wounded people left behind. I had never shot a gun before. This is a hell of a way to start.
Calvin and I dress in the dead horsemens’ clothes. I’m already bloody from treating the wounded people. The horsemens’ clothes are heavy and hot. I wipe my forehead with my forearm. I feel a cold sticky streak across my face, and a second later I realize it isn’t from wiping away my sweat, it’s the blood from my clothes. At least I’ll look convincing when we try to sneak into the horsemen’s base and save Calvin’s wife. If there is anything left to save. If my crazy plan of sneaking in with these disguises even works. If we’re not just shot on sight. The people that I bandaged and helped are watching me dress. They look at me like I’m crazy. They look scared and confused. They looked disgusted. Even after I saved their lives, they look down on me now. I don’t say anything, Calvin and I continue on.
We don’t talk as we’re walking. I guess Calvin must have a lot on his mind. He doesn’t look like himself. There seems to be something fundamentally wrong with him now. He is a cube who’s dimensions are slightly skewed. It’s not from the horsemen’s clothing either. Its from something underneath. If anything the odd apparel makes his internal deformity less obtrusive. Excuses are helpful escapes.
I can’t get the robed man out of my head. The way that he laughed when I suggested that our species may have run its course disgusts me more and more with each passing second. I hate anything that believes itself to be the only important thing in the entire universe. I hate that people automatically assume that they are the most important. I hate that people automatically assume that we are the only specie that matters. Species have come and gone countless times since the beginning of this world. Why should our species be any different?
The sun starts to set and I feel the air cooling around me. Any colder and I would be able to see my breath. It is dead calm around us. I can only hear the world crunching beneath our feet as we trek on. This world is diseased. This world is dieing around me and I don’t know if there is anything I can do. We had societies once, and the inalienable evil in our hearts destroyed us. Now we have no societies, and still we destroy ourselves and each other and everything around us. There are weeds poking up through the pavement we’re traversing, crumbling it back into nothingness. In time, this will be a forest again. In time it will be as if humans had never touched it in the first place. In time there will be no one and nothing to remember that we were ever alive at all.
Calvin and I find our way to the lair of the horsemen at last. There are two men standing outside, leaning on two of four large pillars marking the entrance to this hellish place. In the twilight, the building looms over us sculpted from black sludge, its tower tearing a hole in heaven itself. I can almost hear the angels crying. Bodies, human and animal alike, mark the outlines of the threshold, displayed mangled and piked for all the world to see. Calvin and I approach.
The guards are suspicious of us, but don’t kill us on sight. Calvin uses his quick tongue to see to that, but I can see they still need convincing. With quickness and accuracy that I did not know I possessed, I drew my gun and shot a guard twice in the head. The other guard laughed, as Calvin did his best to hold his composure, but I could see behind his mask. In this instant I realized, the village elders were right. There are monsters out here. Monsters in the guise of men. I have become what I had been brought up to fear. I am proof of their legends now.
“I empathize now Robert. I really do.”